Coffee Talk #283: What’s in a (Game) Name?

What do you name yourself in videogames? How about characters you collect in your party? Since I’ve restarted Pokemon SoulSilver, Pokemon names have been on my mind. As I mentioned in my old Pokemusings column…

Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, Trevor Hoffman retiring, the Pokemon Black/White mall tour, or your favorite Kool-Aid flavor, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

What do you name yourself in videogames? How about characters you collect in your party? Since I’ve restarted Pokemon SoulSilver, Pokemon names have been on my mind. As I mentioned in my old Pokemusings column, I hate sticking with standard names. I love going with puns. Just ask my Wobuffet named Jimmy, my Kabutops named Citizen, and my freshly caught Lugia named Hakka. *snicker*

As for single-player games where I’m the lead, I usually stick to some form of RPad. While the name is passable in sci-fi settings, it seems funny and out of place in fantasy games like Dragon Age: Origins. An elf rogue named R.Pad?!? Yeah…. More recently I’ve been using RPad.tv for branding purposes. You never know when someone will play a game with you online and randomly check out your web site.

And you? What do you usually name yourself in single-player games? What names do you use when you have an entire party?

Author: RPadTV

https://rpad.tv

28 thoughts on “Coffee Talk #283: What’s in a (Game) Name?”

  1. I go with Big Blak (started that with FFVII) for the single player. When the opportunity arises for party naming I go with people I know, but when I was younger I would use profanity or funny adjectives so it would read like a mad lib lol.

  2. Single player offline – default

    Multiplayer – whatever isn't taken. I'm still pissed I couldn't name my Paladin Okra.

  3. Sony is seeking a court order against PS3 jailbreakers while MSFT supports homebrew Kinect. Weird huh?

  4. For singleplayer games, lateiy I've been using some form of my cat's name, Rowdy. Capt. Rowdster, McRowdy, etc.

  5. I usually stick with my name, I know it's a a little boring but I've never been great at coming up with nicknames or anything so I don't have much else to go with. As for my pokemon I have a Quagsire named Glen, and a Growlithe named O.P.P. so I'll let you guess what his nature is. haha. That's probably my proudest one.

  6. i usually choose tokz, except for the Legend of Zelda games. I don't re-name my parties. i'm not very creative when it comes to things like that.

    1. I never rename characters in games. It just seems pointless because you will still have to refer to them by their real names when ever you talk to someone about the game.

  7. I use a couple of names depending on the type of game. Offline games it is a version of my name, Chris, Topher (evil character), or Ott. Online rpg games it is Hobu (chibi style games) or Hobuko Hyuuga, and in non-rpg online games I use Sandrock.

    @Pokemon names

    I use puns of their names or old rumor names I used to hear about pokemon back in the day. (All revolve around the pokemon in the first movie.)

    1. I didn't get the year of XBL Gold, but I did get my fiance a Wii, some games, and an extra controller. Barely had to pay any of my money for it because I got so much money back from amazon for trading in a bunch of books I had. Hopefully that order shows up for you soon!

      1. No problem! I'm looking forward to it, even though it will be staying with my fiance and not me. This is all part of my new years gaming resolution though to play more games with her. I'm excited to play some of the games that I've been putting off due to lack of the system.

    2. Oh, please don't make me buy another one. I have enough XBL subscription cards to last me to 2013.

      That's not a joke. The ironic part is that I'm probably not going to get much out of the service since after August of this year, I'm probably going to be wrist-deep in poopy diapers.

      -M

      1. You say that as a joke, but when I talk about it with my wife, I'm as serious as a heart attack.

        I clean the dishes and she cleans the baby. That's the deal.

        Bsukenyan, take notes!

        -M

      2. I took care of my younger brother and sister on my own plenty of times for my mom and dad when I was about 13, and I grew up doing chores around the house. So I am an expert by now at cleaning up, washing dishes, and vacuuming. I just would rather do other things. When we have kids I will have to be the one teaching my fiance how to do everything like that.

  8. We lost power for about 5 hours today because of the blizzard and crazy part is is that it is still snowing pretty steadily. Some places got hit with 26" of snow.

  9. Usually I'll use names related to my 1st D&D character, a rogue named Devan Nightshade. Yeah, that's where my handle on here (and really, everywhere else) comes from. Let me just say, when I was playing KotOR that first time through as Devan Nightshade, only to find out I was Darth Revan….I thought that though unplanned, it fit extremely well….

      1. He was eventually turned into a V-Neck Tee Shirt by a couple of Orcs with really big axes…..

        I've actually had a lot of characters much cooler than him since then, but I just really liked the name.

      2. I tend to go for the fighter/rogue mix. It allows me to play the more "moral" thieve or "slightly less moral" warrior, who can also multitask as both front line fighter and specialized lock opener.

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